In the Trenches of the Information War

I read on Ethiomedia.com, a site I trust immensely and visit religiously almost every day, a report which was first published on December 7, 2005 by the student newspaper of the University of Manitoba. That report (http://umanitoba.ca/manitoban/2005-2006/1207/1621.ethiopia.information.shortage.php) propagates numerous erroneous notions regarding the political chaos engulfing our country. I found its characterization of the historical background, its description of the protagonists and its reportage on the demographic characterstics of the country substantially in error.

Consequently, I prepared a document highlighting the most obvious and most critical of the errors and forwarded it to the editors of the Manitoban on December 8, 2005. I also shared this report with Ethiomedia when they posted the Manitoban report. Ethiomedia immediately removed the item from its site and published this post two days later. Some 8 weeks later, The Manitoban has neither published nor acknowledged receipt of my e-mail. The document is published below both to serve as counter point to the Vanderhart report for the benefit of visitors to this site but also to highlight the need for vigilance by Ethiopians everywhere to monitor and respond to erroneous reports which confuse the public and rrode support for the cause of the Ethiopian people.

One Battle in the War Against Disinformation

Dear Editor;

As I read the story by Tessa Vanderhart titled “Ethiopia: Information Shortage”, I was torn between expressing gratitude and lodging a complaint. The Manitoban is not just one of the few Canadian papers reporting on the unfolding political crisis in Ethiopia, it is in deed one of a handful North American media outlets having something to say on this matter. For that, I and 77 million other Ethiopians are grateful. Many western media institutions seem to find the very concept of an African people fighting for basic human and democratic rights to be such a fringe notion, that they skip over news of violence perpetrated by government forces on incipient democratic movements as something not worthy of reportage. Repression, they seem to say, represents the norm. Just as the warm tides of the Gulf of Mexico do not make news, African strongmen quashing an emerging democratic movement by turning their armies on their population are deemed to be the routine norms of nature not worthy of special note either in the morning paper or in the evening news. The Manitoban stepped out of that tired old mold and dedicated substantial space to examining the recent political developments in Ethiopia. For that, you are to be commended.

I would have liked this note to end at that. Unfortunately, I must point out a number factual errors and ambiguities in your report, including some errors on substantive matters. Given the depth of frustration Ms Vanderhart expressed regarding the lack of accurate information on Ethiopia, I surmised that you might be interested in getting feedback and corrections when there are obvious gaps in your understanding of some key fact so that you can fill the gaps for your readership. Hence, I took up the task of writing this note to you.

I will begin with the basic demographic facts of the people of Ethiopia. The website of the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC reports that according to the last census conducted in 1994, the ethnic background, the mother tongue and religious mix of the Ethiopian population is as reported in the table that follows. (Source: http://www.ethiopianembassy.org/population.shtml). These proportions are essentially the same as the results from the 1984 census – which was the first ever census conducted in that country.

Ethnic Group by Self-identification (%):
Oromo 32.1, Amara 30.2, Tigrawi 6.2, Somalie 6.0, Guragie 4.3, Sidama 3.4 and all others 17.8.
Ethnic Group by Mother Tongue (%):
Amara 32.7, Oromo 31.6, Tigrawi 6.1, Somalie 6.0, Guragie 3.5, Sidama 3.5 and all others 16.6.
Population by Religion (%):
Christian 61.6 (o/w Orthodox 50.6 Protestant 10.1 Catholic 0.9), Muslim 32.8 and Traditional 5.6.

Two basic facts stand out from both the 1984 and 1994 census. The first is that the Amara and the Oromo people are nearly equal in number; the two languages are spoken by nearly the same number of people; these two groups of people constitute about two-thirds of the total Ethiopian population and that no other ethnic group numbers more than one fifth of either the Amara or the Oromo. The second fact supported by the census is that Ethiopia is a decidedly Christian majority country, with Muslims constituting approximately one-third of the population. Orthodox Christians constitute an absolute majority of the population.

It is in the face of these facts that one can understand the depth of the grievances of the Ethiopian people against the current government. The EPRDF government which has ruled the country over the last 15 years is dominated by the minority Tigrawi ethnic group which number just a shade above 6% of the population. While the EPRDF is technically a coalition of several regional ethnic parties, it was established, controlled and directed by the victorious Tigrawi People Liberation Front (TPLF) army which ousted the military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Indeed, the other constituent parts of the EPRDF were themselves established by the TPLF on the eve of its ascension to power to provide it a mask of national character and legitimacy.

Hence, your statement that “three tribes of people substantiate much of Ethiopia’s population: the Amharic tribe, which is represented politically by the EPRDF, the Oromo, which are the largest group by population, and the Tigrayans” is erroneous in several regards. The architects and leaders of the EPRDF, including the Prime Minister and all other key officials of the government are entirely Tigrayan. Perhaps even more to the point, the Amharic tribe is not represented politically by the EPRDF. On the contrary, the EPRDF promotes itself as the power which liberated Ethiopia from the “Amharic tribe”, to borrow your phrase.

Before I go too far from the subject of the identity of the EPRDF I must also report that your statement that “in 1991, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) seized power from the socialists” incorrectly implies that the EPRDF themselves are not socialists. The fact of the matter is that the TPLF was established as a socialist liberation organization, nurtured and supported by the world socialist movement during its days as a guerilla army. Today it continues to rule as a Marxist Leninist organization with members of the Marxist Leninist League of Tigrai (MaLeLeT) occupying every single national security position in the TPLF/EPRDF government. Its policies which include government ownership of every square inch of land, continued ownership of large public corporations, stringent control over private investment, setting aside of key areas of the economy such as transportation, telecommunication, power generation and distribution and electronic media exclusively for government monopolies belie its claim to conversion to the ideals of liberal democracy and free market economy and lay bare its socialist identity.

A paragraph which appears to report the comments of one Conrad Evans continues to further confuse the basic facts. Evans seems to suggest that the opposition is drawn from the Oromo only. The fact is the opposition is equal parts Amara and Oromo but counts as its supporters majorities in nearly every ethnic group including the majority of the Amara. The exception, if any, might be the Tigrayan people where the TPLF is based and exercises absolute control over the lives of the population there. Clearly the opposition which received the vote of the Amara and the Oromo blocks could and did win a parliamentary majority. The opposition and their supporters believe they did win. Nearly all Ethiopians who can read, read and speak the Amharic language which is the mother tongue of the Amara. Amharic also happens to be the official language of the country for nearly 200 years and is the preferred language of private press. The suggestion that Amharic is “not the native language of its readership, but rather the Amharic government” errors both with regard to the native language of the readers and as well as about the native language of the government. The government is Tigre not Amara and the opposition is Amara and Oromo not just Oromo.

From where I stand, the comment I found to be not only in error but perhaps maliciously so is your comments about press freedom in Ethiopia and the position of the CPJ in it. The sad fact is that in Ethiopia today there are only three kinds of journalists: those who work for the government those who work for media outlets owned by the ruling party and those in the private press who must sell their soul to the government to stay alive and support their families. The CPJ has been actively monitoring developments in Ethiopia since day one. Its reports reflect the consensus view of most Ethiopian reporters, publishers and editors working for the private press as well as those of the majority of the people. As I write this, I tried to unsuccessfully locate a news report by a South African journalist who visited Ethiopia some three months ago. He reported that practically no one buys the government rags, no one watches television news or listens to the radio news programs because no one trusts anything they report. This reporter wrote how people are so desperate for news they line up to buy papers published by the private press even when these papers are known to embellish the news to fit the readers’ desire. So, I think, it behooves you to check the fact out a bit more thoroughly before you dismissively write about the CPJ “…not only is the information from the CPJ without attribution and not subject to any scrutiny, it is also ignored by the mainstream, international media.” The CPJ maintains a data bank of the names, dates and places of the arrest, interrogation, beating and detention of Ethiopian journalists. It receives its information both from Ethiopian based human rights organizations, from the reports of its affiliated organization in Ethiopia, and from court records. Furthermore, the international media does not ignore the CPJ’s reports. It is true that the media does not ballyhoo these reports both because persecution of reporters in a common occurrence worldwide but more importantly, because media managers do not believe that Western readers have any interest in such issues.

I also found the following statement to be rather puzzling. In describing the unworthiness of the Ethiopian Amharic language private press, you wrote “For example, recent criticisms leveled against Prime Minister Zenawi focused not on his politics, his government’s tendency to violence, his treatment of Eritrea, or even the unconstitutionality of the election (all common complaints in the English-language media of the country) — but rather accusations of ballot rigging.” One wonders how a paper becomes scandalous just because it wrote about persistent accusations coming from every opposition party and from international election observers including from the European Union (EUEOM) and the Carter Center. These institutions report that the government prevented the election and vote counting process from operating in a fair and transparent manner. These institutions reported that taken together, the government’s actions constitute rigging of the election. Indeed, it is not just possible but likely that the opposition would have won the election except for the government’s intervention in the vote counting process. On May 24, one week after the vote counting was suspended in the face of early reports showing the government losing by a wide margin; the EUEOM rang the alarm bells loud and clear warning of massive fraud (http://www.et-eueom.org/statement0524.zip). Opposition parties and their supporters remain convinced that they won the vote except for government fraud. So, I see nothing wrong in the free press reporting on a sentiment that is so broadly held.

From that point on, your hold on the facts got ever so tenuous. You wrote that the Amharic language papers are “vocally critical of the government’s actions — in stark contrast to the rest of the country’s media sources”. Perhaps you do not realize that nearly all English language papers are government owned, with the sole duty of trumpeting the political line of the party. Of the two private English language papers, the Reporter is run by a former editor of the government owned Ethiopian Herald, with continuing strong ties with the ruling clique. The Addis Fortune once had an independent streak in its editorial content. However, when all hell broke loose in June, it quickly lined up behind the government. Given the reality of the Ethiopian government and economy, I fully understand why Fortune had to do what it did do. But, to conclude that those who did not tip toe along the same line are some how fringe or lunatic is way beyond reason.

Your frustration with your inability to substantiate information which originates from one or the other side is understandable and par for the course in Ethiopia. The country is gripped with fear. The government has deliberately created this environment of fear and uncertainty as a means of controlling the peoples’ actions if not their thoughts. From the start, the government has resisted the emergence of viable private news organization. It continues to refuse licensing private radio and television organizations even though it has laws on the books authorizing the establishment of such organizations. One of the reasons the government refused to turnover the administration of the city of Addis Ababa to the opposition which won 137 of the 138 seats in the city council was because the city council has a powerful radio station which can be used as an alternative news source. So, you should not be surprised that “we only know what the Ethiopian government wants us to”. I invite you to take a look at a news clip from Britain’s Channel4 TV news broadcast at the following link. http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=1271. You will note that your frustration with the lack of information is shared by many including diplomats, citizens, media organization and business people. It is a sinister attempt of the government to keep everyone in the dark and to share only that which will make it look good.

Thank you for your consideration.
One Ethiopia